Nirmala Sitharaman Is New Defence Minister, Goyal Gets Railways
Nirmala Sitharaman is the second woman to become the Defence Minister of India
Nirmala Sitharaman was named India's Defence Minister in a reshuffle-cum-expansion of the Union Cabinet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 3 September. Piyush Goyal was awarded charge of the Indian Railways.
Of the other two new Cabinet ministers, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan got additional charge of the Skill Development Entrepreneurship ministry, while Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi retained the Minority Affairs Ministry.
The three new Ministers of State with independent charge are RK Singh (Power, New and Renewable Energy), Hardeep Puri (Housing and Urban Affairs) and KJ Alphons (Tourism, Electronics and IT).
The six new ministers of State are Shiv Pratap Shukla (Finance), Ashwini Choubey (Health and Family Welfare), Virendra Kumar (Women and Child Development and Minority Affairs), Anantkumar Hegde (Skill Development and Entrepreneurship), Gajendra Singh Shekhawat (Agriculture and Farmers Welfare) and Satya Pal Singh (Human Resource Development, Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation).
Suresh Prabhu, who lost his Railway portfolio, has been shifted within the Cabinet to the Commerce and Industry Ministry, earlier held by Sitharaman. Nitin Gadkari, who was holding the Road Transport and Highways and Shipping, will also head the Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation Ministry.
Cabinet minister Uma Bharti, who lost the Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, is now left with Drinking Water and Sanitation.
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